Oh, I don't know...so they could avoid a bloody and ultimately futile war by doing their due diligence first?
Reminds me of that old saw, "He'd rather beg forgiveness than ask permission".....except for the beg forgiveness part...
Sorry for the double-tap.
[rockrr]: Oh, I don't know...so they could avoid a bloody and ultimately futile war by doing their due diligence first?
[mac]: Out of respect for their fellow countrymen and for the US Constitution they swore to uphold. Secession may have been legally possible in 1860 but the way the Confederacy went about it wasn't.
Actually the South wanted to leave in peace with the same rights that they had when they came in the Union. As Jefferson Davis said on the floor of the Senate [Source: Congressional Globe, January 10, 1861]:
For the few days which I remain, I am willing to labor in order that catastrophe shall be as little as possible destructive to public peace and prosperity. If you desire at this last moment to avert civil war, so be it; it is better so. If you will but allow us to separate from you peaceably, since we cannot live peaceably together, to leave with the rights that we had before we were united, since we cannot enjoy them in the Union, then there are many relations which may still subsist between us, drawn from the associations of our struggles from the revolutionary era to the present day, which may be beneficial to you as well as to us. (pg 312)
...if we must leave you, we can leave you with the good will which would prefer that your prosperity should continue. If we must part, I say we can put our relations upon that basis which will give you the advantages of a favored trade with us, and still make the intercourse mutually beneficial to each other. If you will not, then it is an issue from which we will not shrink; for, between oppression and freedom, between the maintenance of right and submission to power, we will invoke the God of battles, and meet our fate, whatever it may be. (pg 310)
Is there a Senator on the other side who to-day will agree that we shall have equal enjoyment of the Territories of the United States? Is there one who will deny that we have equally paid in their purchases, and equally bled in their acquisition in war? Then, is this the observance of your compact? Whose fault is it if the Union be dissolved? Do you say there is one of you who controverts either of these positions? Then I ask you, do you give us justice; do we enjoy equality? If we are not equals, this is not the Union to which we were pledged; this is not the Constitution you have sworn to maintain, nor this the Government we are bound to support. (pg 311)
For a great many years the South had been fighting against unconstitutional Northern state laws that blocked the return of fugitive slaves. How much longer should they have put up with the North on this issue?
The North had just passed a tariff law that greatly increased the transfer of wealth from the South to the North. The South had been fighting tariff battles for years, and they were about to take one on the chin.
The Southern economy was based on slavery, which large numbers of Republicans wanted to end. (IMO, the end of slavery was the best thing about the old Republicans.) Thus, the Southern economy and livelihood was threatened by the Republicans if they stayed in the Union. It is not surprising to see why the South seceded, and why they would see Northern actions as oppression.